friends might sleep. And when, after a refreshing bath and
a still more refreshing sleep, the Englishmen were awakened about two
o'clock, behold! those faithful and indefatigable allies the Cimarrones
had provided a delicious hot meal for their delectation, consisting of
the choicest portions of two freshly-killed deer, which, having been
first wrapped in clay, were afterwards baked in the embers of the fire,
thus completely retaining all the natural juices of the meat and
rendering it incomparably delicate, tender and tasty. Then, the meal
finished, the Cimarrones--always the Cimarrones--produced certain dried
golden-brown leaves, which they deftly fashioned into _cigarros_ for the
delectation of themselves and such of the Englishmen as were adventurous
enough to test the seductive effects of tobacco; and when the _cigarros_
had duly been done justice to the mules were rounded up, loaded, the
order of march arranged, and the journey resumed.

The afternoon march was, in all essential respects, similar to that of
the morning, and continued until about five o'clock in the evening, when
another open, grassy glade, very similar to that of the noontide halt,
was reached, and here Lukabela announced his intention of halting for
the night. Then occurred a repetition of the principal events of the
previous halt, except that after the Englishmen had bathed to their
satisfaction they found a hot meal awaiting them without the preliminary
of the two hours' sleep. As before, the meal was followed by
_cigarros_, accompanied by a little desultory conversation; but this did
not continue long, for the Englishmen, at least, were dead weary with
their unwonted labours, and one after another they stretched themselves
out where they sat and, careless of the saturating dew, at once sank
into dreamless slumber, surrounded by their faithful allies, four of
whom kept watch over the sleeping camp until another day dawned. And so
the march continued day after day with little variation, sometimes
climbing upward and at other times descending, but on the whole the
tendency was distinctly to rise.

Toward the close of the third day, and in a still more marked degree
during the fourth day of their march, the breaks in the forest became
more frequent, and of greater extent, occasionally permitting them to
get a glimpse of their more immediate surroundings, when it became
apparent, as might indeed be judged by the up-and-down character of the